Twitter could let users decide how to crop image previews

Team Udayavani, Oct 3, 2020, 3:59 PM IST

Twitter is considering giving users the decision-making power over how their tweet previews would look.

It added that it is working to decrease its reliance on machine learning-based image cropping.

Earlier, users had pointed out a possible racial bias in Twitter’s automated image cropping feature that decides how photos are cropped and displayed on users’ timelines.

As reported by Tech Crunch, Twitter found out that the algorithm it used for image-cropping was receiving critical attention after a Phd student found out that the algorithm simply showed a white male image. It is said that a black faculty member standing next to him was continuously getting cropped.

The criticism was immediately addressed by Twitter who mentioned that they had tested the algorithm for some form of bias before shipping it, and found nothing that would be worth addressing. Twitter promised to share what they learnt, and the actions they would take in the coming months.

We saw your Tweets about the harm caused by how images are cropped on Twitter.

Today we’re sharing how we test for bias in our systems, and how we plan to rely less on auto-cropping and give you more choice in how images appear in Tweets:
https://t.co/tiSreeoGOA

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) October 1, 2020